Asian Lady Beetle vs Ladybugs – Explained

Asian beetles and Ladybugs are familiar insects in several parts of the U.S. In large parts, Asian lady beetles are beneficial predators that feed on scale, aphids, insects as well as other pests that are known to damage landscapes, plants in the garden and agricultural settings. Although, in several places in the eastern United States and Midwest, the multicolored Asian lady beetle has to turn out to be household pests.

Many people often find their homes invaded and surrounded by thousands or millions of ladybugs. In many cases, it might not be ladybugs rather multicolored Asian lady beetles. Sometimes you may not know the difference between the two though they all belong to the family of beetles. In various countries, ladybugs are at times called ladybirds while Asian lady beetles are called Harmonia Axyrid.

Identifying Ladybugs

Ladybugs, ladybirds, or lady beetles? All of these names are common ways to refer to the iconic red and black insects we find in our gardens, parks, and agricultural fields. Although not all ladybugs are red and black (some are even yellow or brown), they all share characteristics that will help you identify them.

Identifying Asian Lady Beetle

This lady beetle came from Asia and was introduced to the U.S. in 1916 to control insect pests. Populations were slow to grow in the United States until 1988 when a large population was noticed in New Orleans. Since then the number of Asian lady beetles has continued to grow. Asian lady beetles have been in Wisconsin since 1994.

The Difference between Asian Lady Beetles and Ladybugs

In as much as both Asian beetles and ladybugs belong to the large family of beetles, they both differ in many things.

First and foremost, the life cycle of both Asian lady beetles and ladybugs is completely different, as in their duration is not the same. For example, the length of the Asian beetle is between 3 to 4 weeks, and it totally depends on rain, natural food sources and temperature whereas the duration of the ladybug’s life cycle from egg to mature adult varies from around one to two month.

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Due to the large variety species of ladybug beetles in the whole world, it has led to a wide dissimilarity in this insect’s life cycle since it all depends on the type of species and where they live. Some are plant feeders while others are predators.

Secondly, Asian beetle lays around 20 eggs and can hatch within a very short period of 3 days, while ladybug lays a lot of eggs of approximately 1000 and eggs hatch in a period of 5 days longer than Asian beetles. In addition to that, the Asian beetles lay their eggs underside of trees, leaves and crops like soybean plants as well as tobacco; ladybug chooses a plant that is separately infested with their prey, scales or aphids.

On top of the above, still on the lifecycles variance, the larvae of the Asian beetles takes about two weeks and throughout that period, they mainly eat scale insects with aphids. While the ladybugs take around 1 to 2 weeks to complete, and another thing with the ladybugs is the fact that they can feed on their prey insects furthermore can often consume some of the unhatched eggs in case prey may not be sufficient.[/sociallocker]

When it comes to appearance, you can tell when you notice that ladybugs are bright red in color, and it has black spots. On the contrary, Asian lady beetles may have pale to dark orange color either with or without dark spots. Possibly the largest dissimilarity between the two is that the Asian beetles will hibernate for the winter which only means that an insect infestation in the fall is even more likely to occur.

Several homeowners always confuse the adorable ladybug for the multi-colored Asian lady beetle.Well, the insects may look the same, but one main difference is that Asian lady beetles are most likely to swarm a house. Above all, if you are a victim of ladybugs, and you can’t tell whether you are having ladybug or Asian beetles then you can as well contact an Alabama pest control company that they may help you in identifying the exact beetles in your home.